“Do you really think it’s a good idea to be handing out guns in a bank?”
The funny thing is, Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” isn’t really about guns at all. It’s about racism, economic inequalities, and a media that whips us all into a froth of constant fear. I can’t say I agree with all of his talking points, but I can say that we need more people like Moore in our society today – rabble-rousers who get people thinking about uncomfortable topics, no matter what their conclusions are.
You know you’re watching something interesting when Marilyn Manson gives the most cogent, insightful interview in the entire film.
Moore left out some stuff that I wish he had included – anything about drugs, and any breakdown of how those 11,000 yearly U.S. gun deaths occurred. But overall, it’s packed with thought-provoking words and images. It’s a much deeper film than “Roger and Me,” and probably worth more than one viewing for anyone interested in the topics it deals with.
One thing the film did for me was reinforce what an epically selfish society we live in – “My Way or the Highway” should be the new national motto. We have little or no sense of community, and most things we come in contact with on a daily basis reinforce what my friend Mike VS calls our “savagely Darwinian” society. And when the underlying ethos is “kill or be killed,” no wonder we have a problem with guns.
Highly recommended.
Do we have a problem with guns? I’m not a gun advocate, but our problem with guns may have more to do with the aforementioned media froth than anything else. I just poked around on the web and found death statistics for 1999.
http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm
People killed by firearms discharged by accident, during criminal assault (homicide), and by law enforcement all together only total about 72% of the number of people that killed themselves with firearms intentionally. That looks like we’ve got more problems with psychology than guns.
Whatever usefulness Michael Moore’s contributions have are obscured, at least for me, by his relentless self-promotion, his arrogance, his unwillingness to see anything other than what he wants to see, and his general obnoxiousness. That, and his tendancy to dump his fish in barrels before taking a shotgun to them.
“Rodger & Me” was terrific. After that, though, it’s all been a steady slide downhill.
I like Michael Moore, and I think his films are definitely worth watching — but Michael Moore is a showman more than anything. He’s at his best when he’s exposing corporate crime, a subject very few people are willing to talk about in America. But he’s in over his head when it comes to analyzing culture, imo.
I found that cartoon about the history of America an extremely unfair (not to mention inaccurate) portrayal of white people. How many of those 11,000+ gun deaths are a result of black-on-black crime in the inner city? Or black-on-white crime? This growing (often violent) black underclass is a problem right-wingers and liberals alike want to ignore. Liberals because they’re paralyzed by identity politics, and right-wingers because God forbid someone in this country “get somethin’ for nothin’.”
I think you said it best, Adam. We pray a price for our individualism — something Moore doesn’t mention when he’s exploring the differences between Canada and America. Having lived in both countries, I think the most important difference is that Canadians don’t feel the enormous pressure of an ideology of extreme individualism.